GREEN LIGHT

25 of May 2024

Good evening!

Today is a VERY big day for the future of DATING OF THE FUTURE!

I'll be discussing the game's new, shiny online presences, the current state of development, and a little bit about what I've been up to.

PRESENTING: THE WEBSITES

Check out the new DATING OF THE FUTURE trailer, featured on the game's website, the Steam page, and the Itch.io page!

In fact, while you're at it, check out those pages, too!

THE WEBSITE

Have you ever wanted somewhere to check out some of the finer details of the game? Somewhere you can see the trailer, learn information about the cast, and read a little bit about the game's development? The technological visionary that I am, I have designed EXACTLY what you're looking for!

Modern technology is truly incredible.

You can even find the Patreon news posts uploaded to the site's news page. In fact, you might even be reading this on the website RIGHT NOW!

Just after I uploaded my last post to Patreon, those bastards had the gall to tell me that one of my older news posts went against their TOS by being publically accessible and also containing nudity. This is pretty fair, actually, but it forced me to close the post out from public view.

Were it not for the website's news tab archiving this post, it would be gone forever from the public eye.

Every single news post that shows up on Patreon will have an equivalent on the geowaffle website. In fact, the past few posts have been written out in html first and THEN ported over to Patreon.

Websites are truly the way of the future. I can't believe nobody realised that until this very moment.

STEAM & ITCH

The game is a while from being done, but there's finally a place for me to send people interested in its completion.

I highly recommend wishlisting the game on Steam, so you'll be notified when it's done! You can trust this recommendation, because I have no ulterior motives behind it beyond a simple desire to inform the target market. Er, I mean the public.

The game will be available on both Steam and Itch.io, but to be honest I would sort of recommend going for the Steam version. It's a weird thing to say, since I know that Steam takes an infamously large cut of the revenue, but the truth is just that Steam is a much more robust system. The game currently has cloud saves working, and I'm already working on making sure the game runs across all platforms (as well as having cross-platform cloud saves).

I don't know if it's just because this is the first time I've noticed how bad the Steam Deck LED screen is, or if it's some obscure issue with Proton, but the version I currently have running on Steam Deck has some of the most washed-out colours I've seen in my life. Whatever, that's a future Marina problem...

Here are the links again, for your convenience. You know I'd do anything for you, right?

WHERE'S SONJA & ROSIE'S ROUTE?

It's here.

It's currently only available for paid tiers, but a free demo should be coming to the Steam page at some point in the future.

THUMB TWIDDLING

Getting the storefronts up and running is, in many ways, sort of out of my hands. The same is true of the editing process when I have to rely so much on playtesting.

As a result, I've had a lot more spare time recently than I actually know what to do with.

Now, obviously a certain amount of this time has been spent working on the elusive and little-mentioned fourth route of the game: Mel's route.

I can't say much about it at this time; the actual .rpy file for it doesn't even exist in the game's code, but the pre-production is wrapping up. It shouldn't be long before the bulk of the environments are done, and then it's just matter of pushing through the dialogue and making the cutscenes and whatnot. This whole process really does get faster every time.

In the meantime, here's some concept art with no context.

Anyway, I'm not here to talk business with you. What is this, a news post? No, I'm here to talk about what the hell I've been doing that ISN'T this game.

It's been a while since I beat my last new triple-A release, and I've spent the time since really scrounging around for something new to sink my teeth into. Experiments have been successful, but boy does it take some searching around...

Here's a rundown of everything I've been playing recently in my spare time.

  • Splatoon 3: Side Order (100% completed): Literally the only roguelike I've ever been able to get through. It's particularly short, and I'd argue that its roguelite elements can make the midgame somewhat easy, but this game can be so ball-bustingly hard when it wants to, it's not even funny. But it is fun! VERY fun! I HIGHLY recommend it!
  • Pizza Tower: The Noise Update (100% completed): Play Pizza Tower right the fuck now.
  • Princess Peach: Showtime! (finished): This one's fine. It's obviously not a massively stimulating experience for an MLG-pro gamer like me, but it has appeal. Or, like, it HAD appeal, but the game got incrementally less interesting as time went on. Also the best unlockable dress in the game is also like the first one you can buy. What the hell?
  • Sayonara Wild Hearts (finished): This is a cute little rhythm-action indie game published by the guys who published Neon White and Stray a while back. It was a recommendation from a friend, and it's relatively cheap. I'll tell you right now that it's worth the price of admission. It's fun and flashy and whatnot but I find the visual motifs somewhat generic. Tarot cards are cool, but it wouldn't have killed them to think of something else...
  • Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion (100% completed): I never actually played this one back when it came out, but I really wish I did. It's another hard as shit campaign like its successor Side Order, but it plays much more like a main Splatoon campaign. Unlike those, however, it actually goes somewhere with its ideas and doesn't feel half-baked and cheap. Wasn't that difficult to make then, was it guys?
  • Persona 5 Royal (a few hours, or something): This was another recommendation from a friend. The same friend, actually. It's fun but it's sexist as shit. I was warned about that beforehand, but I'd argue that no warning would've been adequate. Maybe it's just a me problem, but at a certain point I had to just put it down and remember that I live in a very good world where all men don't literally just have one thing on their mind at all times.
  • Metroid Prime Remastered (finished before, playing again): Metroid Prime is good and Metroid Prime Remastered is Metroid Prime. Easy win.
  • Mario's Picross: PICROSS LETS FUCKING GOOOOO!!!
  • Steamworld Build & Steamworld Quest: I'm lumping these two together because I make the rules around here. I love the SteamWorld franchise, I really do, but it suffers from some sort of chronic condition that prevents it from ever following through on its best ideas. Every game is on the brink of being brilliant, but I'd say none of them have really gone the whole way outside of Dig and Dig 2. I'm happy to report that the latest entries are the exact fucking same. Maybe Heist II will be better...?
  • Super Paper Mario (finished): I played this in the lead-up to the Thousand Year Door remake. I was under the impression that the gameplay was a mixed bag, but the story was decent. I found in reality that the story was really fucking good! It takes a while to get started, but even before then it's funny as hell. I would wholeheartedly recommend it, and I'm sort of wondering if TTYD will live up to the standards that have been set for me with Super. Gameplay was still sort of a mixed bag, though.
  • Tetris Effect: Connected: As a Tetris fan, I was sort of disappointed by this one. I've had it in my library for a while, but this is the first time I've really sunk my teeth into it, and I generally just found the visuals underwhelming. It's a shame, because the game doesn't have much to fall back on. Also negative points for adding letter-graded ranks to Tetris. This is not Pizza Tower, asshole.
  • Tetris Gameboy: TETRIS LETS FUCKING GOOOOO!!!
  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2024): I'm not finished just yet, but I've found gameplay to be excellent, leaving the story as sort of a mixed bag; at least compared to the game's sequel. Damn.

Anyway, I do actually get up to more in my life than work and video games.

I made some sushi.

I've actually made sushi three fucking times between when I first wrote this post and now, when I'm actually posting it.

I had a lot to say about it first time around, but now I've basically perfected my sushi recipe and I've been left with far less to say except perhaps "avocado in sushi is really good actually", BUT THAT'S NOT EVEN A CONTROVERSIAL OPINION!!!

The picture above uses crab sticks and cucumber, but some (not pictured) options from the same batch used tuna instead. Personally I preferred the tuna, but opinions were split around everyone who tried some. Probably because everything I touch is gold.

In other news, I made a website. Although I guess you already saw that one. Plus, that's still work.

Oh, right! I stayed on the Splatoon servers until they shut down. That was fun.

Shit. We're back to video games again.

Okay, this segment is over.

CONCLUSION

Things are finally coming together, aren't they?

Mel's route obviously is going to be on its own special little (MUCH SIMPLER) path to release, but in the meantime I'll remind everyone to go and check out the website. I'm actually not sure how the fuck my SEO is working yet, but you know where the damn links are.

Good luck, soldiers!

-Marina